


The Champions

by Doodle_Byte



Series: The Champions [1]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: CallMeKevin - Freeform, Crossover, Daniel | RTgame, Fights, Gen, I put characters in additional tags cause they weren't in character tags, Out of character peeps, Skipthetutorial, Watcher Charles | Grian, Watchers, Why won't it let me add Kevin in character tags?, failboat, i'm not good at this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-27 12:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30122706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doodle_Byte/pseuds/Doodle_Byte
Summary: The MC Championship was being hosted once again. The attendance list changed, but everything was set to go smoothly....or not.With commands being messed up before anyone had a chance to play, this world might be changing (and put out of order for a bit) quite unexpectedly.
Series: The Champions [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2216847
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	1. A glitchy start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might end up being a pretty short fic, and I don't know enough about the source material, but I hope it's still good and y'all enjoy it (__•-•)__

Even this year, the MC Championship would be like any other, games-wise. Although, the attendance list had changed a bit. Plans, breaks, cancellations. Though people old and new were invited to participate in one of the biggest mini-games event to this day. Said games hadn't started yet, and everyone had some time to wander and chat before they had to get competitive.

Down at the Hall of Winners, some clusters of players were starring down at past champion teams while they wandered and talked.

_______________

"Man, it's exciting to be back again." A galaxy-colored woman said.  
"I'm glad you could make it, Lauren! So many people had to cancel, and I don't know why. At least my bestie is here!" Smajor replied.  
Lauren laughed at the remark.  
"How long until we have to head to the mini-games?" One Ldshadowlady asked.  
"Oh, we've got a ton of redstone set up in the command center that'll just teleport us to the places we need to be when we need to. My team quadruple-checked it to make sure everything would go smoothly." The Scottish host said.  
"I had to deal with some of that stuff back when my server was running. Wasn't very good at it, though, so I just stuck to the architecture." Grian added.  
"At least we can all get back to our teammates when the time comes. I have no idea what happened to Stress or Ren or anyone." A lost Iskall85 remarked.  
"Hey, Iskall, can you get in a good word for me in Hermitcraft?" Smallishbeans whisper-asked the Swede.  
"I'll see what I can do." Iskall chuckled.

___________________

"But is there a cult-making contest?" One tall Irishman asked.  
"No." An exhausted Brit replied.  
"Ah, let the man have fun, Will. Kev's less familiar with these games than I am." Said the more dressed up Irishman to Wilber.  
"I'm just waiting to finally take a victory here. I'm the only one on this server right who deserves it."

As the three men walked along (more of one man and two lads), they came across another small gathering, mostly of newcomers, looking at past team's victories. One of these men caught Wilbur's eye, he was only about a degree of connection off from him, since they both frequently encountered one Mr. Jschlatt. Although, Wilbur's interactions with the goat-horned man were a bit more adversarial than the young Slimecicle.

"You must some of the newcomers here. Do you think you'll make it to last place or second to last place?" Wilber taunted four others.  
"Eh, we're just sizing up our past competition. You seem a bit overconfident in someone's failure just because they're new." Said the young man named Skip.  
"Pleased to meet your friends, Soot. We hail by the name of Skipcicle Failmoji." Slime said. "That is so dumb." The dead-inside man continued to whisper under his breath.  
"I don't think that's our name." Said Jaymoji.  
"That's not the point of a team." Skip started.  
"It's the power of friendship~." Failboat jokingly interjected.  
"Exactly." Skip ended.  
"You shouldn't be minding Will too much in the first place. I dunno why, but he's been acting a bit too high on his horse lately." RT whispered to the four young men.  
"These lads and I are planning on walking around a bit more to try and meet up with our other teammate before it's time to show off. Would you newbies like to come with?" Wilber asked them.

______________________

As the now seven total of them sauntered about, although they couldn't find their teammate, their group and another (much more colorful and kid-friendly) crossed paths not even a minute before the games were to start.

"Oh my goodness! Is that Grian over there?? Someone tell him I said his building skills are killer!" Wilber exclaimed.  
"Why can't you tell him?? You seemed pretty confident in telling us that you were gonna beat us." Slimecicle said after poking Will in the shoulder.  
"Oh, don't you start with me, slimestick." Will said as he took a threatening and tall stance.  
"Why, you-"  
The two would've started brawling if it weren't for Skip and RT (seemingly the most mature of either team) restraining Will, while Slimecicle's hoodie was caught by the tip of one of Failboat's golden scythes, and Kevin and Jay stood to the side wondering why mom and dad were fighting.

"Hey, the fighting mini-games haven't started yet, new guys!" The teal-colored host said.  
The fight had now been broken up, but Will and Slime were left still mad at each other, but Will was also embarrassed.  
"Speaking of the games, and I know I'm new, but shouldn't they have actually started at this point?" Asked Jay.

But that wasn't the only thing that wasn't working right. Points were given out randomly, messages would flash on people's eyes, and now people were teleporting, just not where they needed. In this chaos, Scott asked for anyone with server redstone experience to help out at the command center, along with a suggestion that they should buddy up with people so they wouldn't get lost. But whatever they needed to do in there, it had to be done quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, I'm not specifying who the lads' and Will's extra teammate is, because I don't pay attention to who's at the championships usually. Same goes for the first big group. Idk if the chapter length is standard or how well the characters and scene was played out. This whole fic will probably end up being pretty short, tbh, but I hope you like it.  
> Oh, also, ik, misspelled Wilbur's name a couple times, oops


	2. Into the systems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight, schedule-wise, I might be updating every two or three days. Depends on my home schedule, writer's block, etc. And also the first chapter was a bit clunky, so I'll work on that, although, the chapters might still be a bit short :P

Whatever they needed to do, it had to be done quickly. 

____________________ 

As the group entered the command center, it was decided that Scott would try and monitor the situation solo, and if anyone needed help they could use the communications systems, and if they needed major help, Scott would use his admin commands to teleport to them. 

They were split into groups,  
Group alpha, led by Wilbur Soot (he insisted on being in group alpha), with Failboat and Iskall85  
Group beta, led by Ldshadowlady, with Jaymoji and Slimecicle  
Group charlie, led by Skipthetutorial, with Smallishbeans and CallMeKevin  
Group delta, led by RTgame, with LaurenZside and Grian  
And Smajor, who was not a group, at least not to his knowledge. 

____________________ 

The groups all went to different areas of the command center, with Scott heading for some of the really big stuff that he could hopefully solve. Things started getting a bit dicey in group alpha.  
"I can't believe RT got his own bloody team. What does he know that's on par with me??" Wilbur complained. "That top-hatted, suit-wearing, person-who-can-actually-maintain-order-on-a-server Irishman."  
"Dude, you're fine. You do sound a bit jealous, though." Iskall remarked. "If Xisuma didn't let Doc fix anything on the Hermitcraft server any time there was a bug, we'd of had to bring back Area 77"  
"Whatever's going on in alpha, just keep yourselves in a clear mind. You still need to repair some intricate redstone." Scott buzzed through their communications.  
Scott had good timing to remind them, because alpha just found some broken systems, and also a hole in the wall that they reported. There was some purpley residue from whatever broke through the wall, and Failboat heard some strange squeaking noises, and carefully investigated, trying not to damage the redstone any further. 

Iskall was trying to help Will with the systems, he'd made whole industrial districts, after all. Fail was still following the squeaking, and he found the source.  
A couple of tiny, lavender bugs.  
"Uhhh, hey, Scott, are there supposed to be wild endermites in the systems??" He asked.  
"Endermites?" Scott was puzzled at the information given. "Hold on, that's something you should probably be able to deal with on your own. I'll just get you a sword to help." 

The endermites were delt with, but it was assumed that they didn't make the hole. Which ment someone, presumably with enderpearls, was in there.  
____________________ 

As group delta searched their assigned area, it didn't take long for things to get more wierd.  
*twang*  
"AH FECK." The Irish leader of the group exclaimed in pain.  
An arrow was shot through his shoulder by a skeleton lurking in the dark.  
"ScOTT THERE'S A SKELETON IN HERE." Lauren yelled through her communicator.  
"We need weapons!" Grian added. "Weapons and health!"  
"I'm still in paiiin." RT wheezed, after getting a few more arrows.  
After sending in supplies, now to everyone at this point, Scott assumed that the systems to stop naturally spawning mobs were definitely down, and told everyone to look out for them so there were no more casualties, especially in the rest of the server. 

Before, Scott only expected people to need help with repairing the systems, that seemed to be one of the few things the groups had under control. All he hoped for at this point was not seeing any death messages in the chat. 

____________________ 

"O.K., group charlie's situation isn't too great. We've found a lot of endermites, and we've had some trouble repairing systems due to randomly located sources of water, lava, vines..." Skip spoke into the communicator. "I'm assuming those aren't supposed to be there."  
"..."  
"...Scott?"  
"...anybody?"  
At some point, their communications went down.  
"OH NO WE'RE FECKED." Kevin panicked.  
"AhhHHHHH!" Yelled Smallishbeans, also panicking.  
"Guys! Stay stable! We just need to find our way back to everyone else and things will be sorted out!" Skip said, trying to calm down the two other men.  
"Okay, yeah maybe that's a better idea." Kevin chuckled after regaining his senses.  
"Let's just go back where we came from, and go from there." Skip planned. 

____________________ 

They walked for a few minutes before Smallishbeans piped up.  
"I don't think this is where we came from."  
"There's a lot more endermites and random bits of terrain than I remember." Kevin added.  
"Yep. Okay. This isn't good." It sunk in to Skip. "Maybe now we can panic." 

And so they did. But in all the chaos, they hardly noticed a new person in the room. An extremely tall figure with pale skin (paler than Kevin's), shoulder-length light-lavender hair, a blank expression, large, folded up, feathery wings (a similar color to the hair), a porcelain mask covering the top half of their face with a strange symbol, and a closed cloak of dark purple color with a pin bearing the same symbol as the one on their mask. They also came along with their very own mountain of endermites, and a vague smell of sweet chorus fruit. 

Well, they didn't notice until Smallishbeans ran head-first into the body of the figure.  
"Uhhhhhhhh..."  
He was dumbfounded.  
And then he was launched into one of the few walls that were still intact (and not defying the laws of reality), and done only by an untouching movement by the cloaked figure. Most damage was absorbed by the armor Scott had given them all, but it still damaged him for a few hearts, and even the wall a bit, too. 

"Hey!" Skip tried to grab the figure's attention. "Who are you? And what was that for?!" 

"I am Arcanum, a watcher." The figure said, sternly. "And I have no business with Joel, Kevin, or you, Aiden."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being the author, it's probably not a good sign that I had to keep looking back at who was in each group as I wrote :/ 
> 
> I'm glad I got this part out, even if it's still kinda short. Also, mwahaha cliffhanger >:) 
> 
> Legit tho, hope you enjoyed :D


	3. Watch and find

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where we left off: Wilbur is angy jealous boi; systems be broken, yo; and I made a watcher oc that I described in too much detail :D

"I am Arcanum, a watcher." The figure said, sternly. "And I have no business with Joel, Kevin, or you, Aiden." 

____________________ 

"Wait, your name is Aiden?" Smallishbeans said, still recovering from being thrown against a wall.  
"Your name is Joel?" Kevin said.  
"Everyone knows my name is Joel." He rebutted. "Even Grian."  
"But is my name Kevin?" He pondered. 

"Alright, 'watcher', what is your business here, than?" Skip interrupted his group members.  
"My business is with tracking down a man named Charles." The watcher said. "He has broken a promise, and he has made himself quite hard to find."  
"Why are you in these systems, and why did you break so much?" Skip interrogated Arcanum.  
"I am on this server in particular because word of it and its members finally spread to my people, and I am in this place in particular due to the large amount of command energy that enabled me to come here." Arcanum continued. "It was certainly not my intention to damage the systems, especially considering the rather world-breaking chaos it has caused. I had gotten lost and decided to mark my way by breaking through the rather weak walls, even if it broke the redstone on my way." 

"If we help you find 'Charles' on this server, will you at the very least leave us to fix this without any more trouble?" Skip asked.  
"I might as well, so long as you don't get in my way." They answered. "It shouldn't be too hard to identify the actual person, considering that Joel knows who he is."  
"Wait, I do?" Joel wondered. "Are you referring to Grian? What are you planning on doing to him when you find him?"  
"Just make him deliver on old promises." Arcanum said. "I hope that no one more should be hurt if we cooperate."  
"I feckin' hope so. I heard RT got shot by arrows just for us to get some armor." Kevin was worried about his fellow Irishman. 

"If you don't want anyone to get hurt, why did you launch me into the wall?" Joel continued to question.  
"..." Arcanum paused for a moment in guilt and stepped back before speaking again. "It was certainly not my intention. I have trouble controlling my strength sometimes, which can be seen in some of the bigger holes in the walls. I hope I can help you all to recover from my mistakes."  
"Joel, Kev, whaddya think?" Skip asked.  
"Alright."  
"I forgive 'em."  
The two responded.  
"It's settled." Skip concluded. "Let's fix up some of the systems before we get going, though." 

____________________ 

"Ugh, I can't believe communication is down. Man, I'm so worried about Skip and Fail right now." Jaymoji groaned.  
"We'll probably be out of here soon. Just stay calm." Lizzie tried to keep a level head. "Remember what Scott said, 'just keep yourselves in a clear mind.', that's all we need right now."  
"Whatever. That's all that we can get. I'm still gonna punch Will in the face when we find him again." Slime was still angry. 

____________________ 

"Did you guys hear that?" Skip asked.  
"It sounds mostly like worried complaining, and some violent tendencies, with a side of failing encouragement." Said group charlie's newfound watcher member.  
"Oh my goodness, I think I heard Lizzie!" Joel exclaimed. "LIZZIE, I'M COMING FOR YOU, SWEETIE."  
"I'm guessing that's beta down the hall if Ldshadowlady's there." Kevin said.  
Skip paused for a moment before a realization.  
"JAY!! SLIME!! I'M COMING FOR YOU GUYS, TOO!!" He ran down the corridor. 

Kevin and Arcanum looked at each other for a second, coming to a silent agreement of 'we should go after those two, shouldn't we?' 

____________________ 

As the two groups shouted at each other through the walls, Arcanum not resorting to breaking them in fear of causing more damage, they finally came upon each other. 

"Lizzie! Honey, I was so worried about you!" A worried Smallishbeans calmed himself of his anxiousness.  
"I was too! Never leave me like that again." His wife responded. "But, who's the new...guy? Are you a guy?"  
"I'm a natural-born watcher. We're kind of... gender-neutral, I guess you would call it." They responded. "My name is Arcanum. Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Dwyer."  
"Wait, how'd you-"  
"Just... don't question it." Skip interrupted Lizzie.  
"Alright. But, where did you find... Arcanum?"  
"They were in the systems. We just stumbled upon them, but it's not unlikely that would happen with five different groups in here." The group leaders conversed. "They say they're looking for Grian. I don't suppose you've encountered him or any of delta in here?"  
"No. But I'm most worried about Scott. He's out there, and we don't even know if he has his admin powers still active. And if he doesn't, his best bet for defence is if he kept copies of the supplies he gave us in his inventory, which in itself is a wild card..."  
"Whatever we do, we should probably all stick together from here on out. Even if we can repair the redstone, it's hard to know what else could happen." Jay pitched in.  
"Alright. Arcanum, can you do some of the repairs? You said you wanted to help."  
"Unfortunately, watchers and redstone don't go to well together. That's part of why things here were so messed up, bigger systems means bigger problems. And since there wasn't any anticipation from me or my peers that I would encounter redstone, let alone fix it, I didn't bring any of the watcher-developed tools to deal with it. I urge you to believe me, I would've helped when it happened if I could. But I still have some wiring training, so I can aid in that aspect."  
Arcanum felt guilty that they couldn't even fix it.  
"We believe you. Let's just try and go through here and hope for no more casualties. We don't even know what the rest of the server looks like after the hour or so we've been in here." Skip said.  
"We better get going if we want to find everyone before this gets much worse than it already is. Remember, stay together." Ldshadowlady directed the now mega-group of beta, charlie, and Arcanum. 

____________________ 

They walked through the systems, repairing anything they could, and sticking together was key in all this chaos. Although, there wasn't complete trust of their new watcher companion, and Arcanum could feel that. 

But redstone wasn't the only thing they encountered in those halls. Once again, they heard a familiar voice. 

"I walk a lonely road, the only road I've ever really known."  
"..."  
"Who's there?" 

"FAIL! OH MY GOSH, IS THAT YOU DOWN THE HALL?!" Skip was overjoyed to hear the voice of another one of his best friends again.  
"Skip! You're okay! You found beta? And also someone else??"  
"We'll explain them later. But, where's Wilbur and Iskall?"  
"About that..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oo boy, they're getting longer.  
> After writing Arcanum into the story finally, I originally thought they were just gonna be the standard watcher, all emotionless and real terrible to anyone who had feelings. But now I've gotten attached, and y'know what that means? Like, another chapter or two's worth of character development!  
> Also, I think I might just have cliffhangers be a thing I do for a lot of chapters
> 
> Mwahahahaha >>>:3


	4. Lost and found dreamworld

"Where's Wilbur and Iskall?"  
"About that..." 

____________________ 

"Will got increasingly more angry and jealous about RT, and partially you too, getting to be leaders of your own groups. He pretty much just stormed off after that. Iskall and I tried to go after him, but not with much luck. We lost each other. I'm really lucky to have found you guys, but that still means there's people out there." 

Slimecicle wasn't focused on the fact that they lost people, more on that he couldn't punch Wilbur in the face for being so full of it. Arcanum could sense Slime's furry and kept an eye on him. 

"Our biggest concern right now is Scott, and Arcanum here wants to find Grian for 'delivering on old promises', or something like that. I guess now we have to look out for the rest of alpha, too." Skip informed his friend.  
"We better get going if we don't want to risk losing more people. Even in a group, we can't guarantee that delta won't go the way of alpha." Ldshadowlady noted.  
"It's settled. Let's go." 

____________________ 

The group had walked for a while now, no one they were looking for in sight. But hand-scuffed redstone systems as opposed to ones damaged by debris were an indication of someone besides Arcanum having been through there, with a more deliberate attempt to destroy the systems. Failboat had a feeling in the back of his head that this was Wilbur's way of saying 'Let's see your redstone skills fix this!' after he rampaged away from him and Iskall initially. Although not having known each other for long, he could believe Will to do something like that, even if it wasn't a pretty thought. It could even mean that Will was responsible for the still-unconfirmed (but assumed) fate of Scott getting stripped of his admin powers and not being able to teleport to anyone or summon in items. 

____________________ 

They kept going, but as they continued, Kevin saw something strange out the corner of his eye. Something that definitely wouldn't be in the systems normally, although no one else seemed to notice it. He saw a well-lit room that would be in a casino. Bar stocked with drinks, billiard tables ready to play, and a strange (and quite large) slot machine that used armor stands and mobs instead of normal slots. Looking into felt real and unreal at the same time. It felt like a memory, but he'd never been there. Whatever it was, it practically took him out of his body. He hadn't moved while looking at it, and he could barely hear anything, even-  
"Dude! Kevin. You okay?" Failboat asked.  
That seemed to snap him out,of it enough, but where he thought he was looking into a room was just a plain, unusually undisturbed wall.  
"I- I'm fine. I thought I saw something." Kevin explained. "I dunno, I'm feeling a bit... out of it."  
"Is it because you miss your friend, that RT guy?" Fail asked  
"...yeah. Kinda."  
"I felt pretty out of it when I was lost without the rest of alpha." Fail tried to comfort him.  
"Eh, I shouldn't be so down. I've actually got people here, unlike when you were wandering."  
"Don't feel so bad about feeling bad for yourself. You've got just as much of a right to be depressed as anyone else here." Failboat tried to assure Kev. 

"I think I might of seen some things, too. Nearing when I found you guys, something caught my eye. It was a room. Not one I'd ever seen before."  
"Was it a casino?" Kev asked, trying to find similarities.  
"No. But... I'm guessing that's what you saw just then?"  
Kevin nodded.  
"I saw a shop. It was selling duplicates of items that were floating in these strange glass boxes on shelves of colorfully stained wood. There were some other things that were unusual, but I can only assume those things were from modifications put on a server. I went to go into it, I reached my hand out, but it just hit a wall. And memories flooded in of just having stared at that wall, but visions of that shop lingered in my head. It all felt like I had seen it before, like in a photo." 

All of the feelings that Failboat described...  
Something catching his eye that he hadn't seen before.  
Yet having a feeling of familiarity.  
It was all like a dream.  
Staring at a wall, that's what was happening while he saw the room.  
It clouded up the memory of where that room had been.  
Leaving only traces behind. 

It felt nice to know that someone knew how you felt, too, and had your back, even with no one else around. 

"Isn't that shop like something from one of the modded survival servers that Ldshadowlady and her friends play on?" Kevin realized.  
"Oh my gosh, you're right, it is!" Fail exclaimed. "That could mean whatever you saw might be something from one of the servers that someone else here has been on."  
"Okay, this is getting freaky!" Kevin chuckled. 

"..."  
"Thanks for talking with me, Fail. You know, you don't need to. You actually have friends here right now."  
"But you don't, Kev. And that's why I want to do it." He responded. "Besides, who says you can't get another friend here before this is all over?" 

That made Kevin happy. He was still worried about RT, but Failboat would still do anything he could for him. 

Bonding experiences aside, all of their visions ment was that the world was getting more unstable. The server itself breaking was one thing, but seeing other servers ment this would be an awful lot harder to fix than anyone could have thought. 

____________________ 

Some of the group was starting to give up hope on finding anyone else in the systems, some even thinking they should just try and find the outside and see if anyone was there. 

But footsteps were heard once again, similar to when the group found Failboat, there only seemed to be ones pair of footsteps coming along, but it wasn't one of the three people the group had assumed at first.  
Not Scott  
Not Wilbur  
Not Iskall  
No. It was one of delta. 

"Grian! Oh my goodness, where's Lauren? Where's RT?" Smallishbeans asked upon finding the hermit.  
"We got separated. We thought we heard your voices and ran after them, but after turning a few too many corners, I couldn't see them anymore!" Grian explained. 

'We got separated.'  
To Kevin, that ment an even lower chance of seeing his friend and fellow Irishman again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lemme just put these two *Kevin and Failboat* in the angst/fluff box.  
> Sorry I got a bit too self-indulgent, though.  
> I had no idea how to end this, but I hope it's good. We're gonna get into some major stuff in the next chapter.


	5. Swordstruck hill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I had some trouble getting this out, but I still feel pressure to keep writing even though nobody is asking me to. Although, it would be nice if I got some comments? Please? I've literally only gotten one. Idk, just enjoy.

'We got separated.'  
To Kevin, that ment an even lower chance of seeing his friend and fellow Irishman again. 

____________________ 

"Wait, is that-"  
Grian hadn't noticed Arcanum until this point.  
"Oh, nonononono, you didn't really-" Grian was getting a bit mad at seeing this unexpected face.  
"I can't believe it! So you've been chasing after me?! Because I know your kind never leaves the deep end unprompted."  
"Charles, I was sent to find you to have you deliver on your promise-" Arcanum tried to explain.  
"Don't use my name like that! And I have made no promises to your kind!" Grian was getting harsh.  
Most in the group didn't understand who Arcanum was, and how Grian knew him, and what was going on. Certainly not Kevin. He was still wrapped up in his head about RT. They collectively decided to back off from the two for a moment. 

"I'm not going back there! Not after what you and your little watcher buddies did to my friends! Not if my life depends on it." Grian was furious. "What 'promise' did I make exactly?? And why were my friends roped into it?"  
Arcanum was hesitant to explain at first, in fear of making Grian even more angry than he was now.  
"When you, when all of you, signed up for Evo, you knew that you were being watched, and that one day, some of you might have to come with us." Arcanum said.  
"How did you get Dom into all of this? And what did you do with Taurtis?" Grian continued. "Besides, I thought you were better than the rest of them. You were the nice one..."  
"I tried to be, Grian! I don't want to do this!" Arcanum pleaded. "I have as little of a choice in this as you do right now."  
"Well at this point, who says you have to go back?!" Grian responded. "If I ran away for this long, why couldn't you?" 

For a moment, everyone was silent, with weighted breaths. Grian was waiting for a response, Arcanum was trying to formulate one, and the rest of the group was trying to piece everything together. 

"...maybe. Maybe I could. " Arcanum sighed. "For now, we should probably just still get going. There's... still people out there..."  
"Fine. I still want to talk about this more later." Grian said. 

The air was still tense. People had a lot to think about. Arcanum was torn, they always tried to stay as neutral as possible, but they were always concerned about Grian. 'Dom', 'Taurtis', those were unfamiliar names to most in the group. Even most people Grian knew on Hermitcraft didn't know them. 

____________________ 

Warm. 

It was so warm. 

That wasn't right. 

The systems, in the systems, it was drafty, and the torches, they didn't do anything but light the place up. 

Light, light, here was lighter.  
Light and fluffy, light like a dream. 

A dream? He had a dream, before... 

A dream. He saw him. His friend. Pale. Oh, so pale. More pale than usual. He was collapsed. Collapsed on the ground, he looked like he was dead. His head was only two, two, no, three feet away from his feet. Shock. That definitely wasn't how he had seen his friend last time, no, no. That wouldn't be normal. His friend, oh, he looked so dead. Check it. Check the body, this can't be. Reached out to him. One small brush against a thread of his hoodie, and- 

*SNAP* 

A snap, a sharp snap, that's what it felt like when, when he lost him, when he woke up. Oh god, okay, get your bearings, your thoughts are racing. 

He opened his eyes. His vision still blurry. Above him, a tree. Something was glistening in the branches. He tried standing up, but he was unstable from being out for who knows how long. Worse than that, he was on a hill. He toppled over from his legs not being in use, and fell down the hill. Rolling, he could barely see anything. His thoughts were a bit slow for a moment. 

'I'm not going to stop on my own.' No, he was afraid of what would stop him at the bottom.  
'Who was that? Who am I?' God, had he forgotten who he was, even?  
'What was I doing before the dream?' He didn't know. 

*CRASH* 

He almost wanted to yelp in pain. This wasn't a wall, or a rock, or an animal. He had crashed straight into some berry bushes. So, so many thorns. This would of hurt less if...  
If he were wearing armor- 

That's what was in the tree. Armor, supplies, weapons, food. He used those in the systems. The cold, dank systems. 

He had gotten himself out of the bushes. He decided to pick some berries, why not? The smell of them attracted some foxes, though. One of them had a sword in its mouth. It would be dangerous to be on that fox's bad side if it were armed. Luckily, he was able to retrieve it. Was that sword his? I mean, there was only one way to find out. Besides, anywhere he went from this point on could be dangerous. 

He made it back up to the tree. From there, he had a view of where he had gotten himself to. It was the outskirts of the spawn area, apparently. Yet, there were strange bits of walls and roofs stuck in the hill. There were large words in the sky, 'MC Championship'. That's what he was hoping for only a few hours ago. That's the last time he saw his friend that wasn't in a dream. 

____________________ 

It was a bit of a hassle to get his stuff down, considering he was still in some pain from his thorn-made puncture wounds, even if his suit took some of the brunt of it. 

He got his stuff and did a count of it. 

-All of his armor [helmet; chestpeice; leggings; boots]  
-All of the healing potions and golden apples he remembered (he should use one of those right about now)  
-A good amount of food (+the berries he got)  
-Crossbow and arrows  
-Shield  
-And finally, a sword 

That confirmed it, someone was missing their sword.  
Only one thing to do now. Set off on a fantastical adventure with his new critter pals in order to return the mysterious sword and search for his own home using the powers of friendship and magic.  
It also confirmed that he had completely lost his gourd. Well, what mattered now was finding, really, anyone. What else could he do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know how I did that whole thing in the first two chapters were I switched to different perspectives every so often, and then I completely forgot about that? Well, it's back now, baby! 
> 
> This chapter was a hard one to get out, like I said in the beginning, and next one might even be a bit delayed, so apologies in advance if I say I have to go on hiatus or something soon. I've been busy, a lot with the holidays and things. And by holidays, I mean Passover. Dear god, there's so much cleaning.

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it to the end of the chapter, please considering supporting the work! Subscribing, giving kudos, even bookmarking or sharing with people! And leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions, or anything else.


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